A leadership lesson from Matsushita

Matsushita Leadership: Lesson from The 20th Century's Most Remarkable Entrepreneur

By John P. Kotter

The Free Press, New York, 1997

302 pages, including notes and index

Rp 48,000

JAKARTA (JP): Are leaders born or can someone be trained to lead? John P. Kotter, a professor of leadership from Harvard Business School, stands in the latter camp of thought. His premise explains the title's homage to the Japanese entrepreneur.

It is a biography but not in the conventional sense. As a management educator and not a historian, Kotter uses Konosuke Matushita's long list of achievements as instructional tools.

He explores why Matsushita's legacy is unusual compared to managers anywhere, including those in Japan, and how might the lessons of his life be used effectively around the globe in the next century.

Matsushita did not fit the stereotyped striking figure of a leader. Early photographs show an unsmiling young man with jug ears. He was of medium height and thin all his life. Unlike his rival Akio Morita at Sony, he was neither charismatically handsome nor internationally recognized. He didn't excel at public speaking, a prerequisite for success in Western countries, and his voice grew increasingly frail. He rarely displayed lightning-quick intellectual skills.

Nevertheless, he did what all great leaders do by motivating others to improve the human condition. His accomplishments are astonishing and outshine even Soichiro Honda, J.C. Penny, Sam Walton and Henry Ford.

The major theme running throughout his life is the unending pursuit of growth. Young Matsushita was not highly educated, rich, charismatic or well connected, but he used innovative management and marketing practices to build a gigantic corporation, Matsushita Electric Corporation, often known as Japan's General Electric.

After his official retirement, Matsushita did not spend his time idly but took on new challenges that went far beyond the usual domain of business. He became an author, philanthropist, educator and a philosopher of sorts.

Almost all of his last two decades were oriented to helping others learn the biggest lessons that he drew from his own life: the poorest can succeed through perseverance; life's difficulties are opportunities to learn; one can be reborn stronger from failure; success can stop personal development if it leads to arrogance and risk aversion; a willingness to humbly and honestly assess your actions is at the heart of personal development. He wrote to educate people. He gave money to support educational missions.

Actions that facilitated his development were simple but powerful. Again and again, he pushed himself and others out of comfortable routines, took risks, reflected humbly on successes and failures, listened carefully, viewed life with an open mind and tried to draw from the collective wisdom of others. These habits were supported by vast and humanistic goals, ambitions which evolved from regaining family wealth into becoming a successful entrepreneur, then expanding a company, then creating a prosperous nation through that company, then helping to build a wealthy and peaceful world.

Those habits were also fostered by his beliefs. His first was that things could only get better. Eventually, he developed an idealistic philosophy which said that risk taking, openness, listening and humility were all rational actions.

His idealistic-humanistic goals and beliefs also touched politics. After disastrous World War Two, Matsushita became increasingly concerned with member of the government, viewing them as too short-term oriented in their thinking, too willing to abandon principles for an expedient result. Many were corrupt. Most of all, few were real leaders.

He initially tried to reform politics by funding or backing specific candidates. This strategy had little impact, mostly because he could find few visionary leaders seeking elected office. He adopted a long-term strategy through education. At age 85, he founded the Matsushita Institute of Government and Management with the stated goal to develop and promote leadership in government and politics for the 21st century.

Lessons from his own life shaped the basic concept of the school. Hardships can be very useful, he said again and again, for building character, forging motivation and forcing honest self-assessment. Students would live in modest surroundings, work hard and be asked to devise much of their own curriculum.

As a philosopher, Matsushita developed his body of thought through the Peace and Happiness through Prosperity Institute. The core of this is; human beings are by nature basically good and responsible; the human race has demonstrated a capacity for growing and progressing, both materially and spiritually; humans have the power of choice; we have the capacity to bring material and intellectual resources to bear on the difficult problems facing the world, and solving difficult problems requires, above all, an open mind and the willingness to learn.

The second question explored in the book is how to effectively use the lessons of his life. Continuing globalization of the economy, competition and change will make life challenging for thousands of businesses and billions of people. If current trends continue, the success stories of the next few decades will not be about standard educations and careers. Winners will be those willing and able to grow throughout their lifetimes.

Matsushita's most basic and potentially most powerful ideas are about the roots of lifelong learning. Privilege, degrees and a winning personality are all fine, but one can learn from any experience and at any age with an open heart and mind. With humanistic ideals, one can conquer success and failure, learn from both, and continue to grow. His extraordinary life stands as powerful testimony to these propositions.

This book is highly recommended for the leaders of the future, as well as all readers concerned with leadership issues. Its easily readable format makes this book a valuable contribution to anyone interested in leadership.

-- Djohan Pinnarwan

The reviewer is professional staff at the public accountant firm Hadi Susanto & Partner (Price Waterhouse), Jakarta.